BP Plc BP
Bluebell publishes ten pointed questions BP must answer at the 29 Oct 2024 Q3 call, demanding transparency on abandoned EBITDA, production and energy-transition targets and faulting Board oversight.
Thesis
On the eve of BP's 29 October 2024 Q3 earnings call, Bluebell Capital Partners writes to BP's Board (copying 26 sell-side analysts) accusing CEO Murray Auchincloss of producing no updated strategic plan after twelve months in office despite numerous U-turns on the February 2023 strategy, and of letting material decisions leak to Reuters instead of being disclosed officially. The letter sets out ten specific questions management must answer: the 2025 EBITDA build by division and the commodity-price assumptions behind it, when a revised 2025 target will come, whether the 2030 EBITDA, 2.0 mmboed production and 20-30% Scope 3 targets still stand, the status of TravelCenters' $800m EBITDA, the halt to offshore wind and the $30bn Hydrogen + Power capex, and the Lightsource Burnhope 'unlawful' planning ruling. Bluebell frames the opacity as a Chair and Senior Independent Director governance failure.
SCQA
BP, a UK oil major, set a February 2023 strategic plan with quantified 2025 and 2030 EBITDA, production and energy-transition targets that the market still uses to track the company.
Twelve months into Auchincloss's tenure those targets have effectively been abandoned, with U-turns leaked to the press rather than disclosed, leaving investors with no anchor and a passive Board.
At the 29 October 2024 Q3 call, BP must answer ten specific questions covering EBITDA build and assumptions, production, offshore wind, Scope 3, Hydrogen + Power capex, and the Lightsource Burnhope planning ruling.
Restored disclosure discipline gives the market a credible measurable plan again and exposes the Chair's and Senior Independent Director's failure to govern, paving the way for accountability.
The three reasons
- 1
12 months in, CEO Auchincloss has produced no updated strategic plan despite numerous U-turns
- 2
BP is leaking strategy changes to the press instead of communicating transparently to the market
- 3
Chair and Senior Independent Director are failing to govern the Board and enforce disclosure
Primary demands
- Disclose 2025 EBITDA build by division and the underlying Brent, Henry Hub and refining-margin assumptions
- Provide timing for a revised 2025 EBITDA target and reconfirm or withdraw the 2030 EBITDA target
- Officially confirm or deny press-leaked U-turns: dropping the 2.0 mmboed 2030 production target and halting new offshore wind
- Reconfirm the 20-30% Scope 3 reduction by 2030 versus 2019 baseline
- Clarify the validity of the $30bn 2023-2030 Hydrogen + Power capex plan after the wind exit and CCUS scope cut from 30 to 5-10
- Explain corrective actions following the 'unlawful' Lightsource BP Burnhope solar planning ruling
KPIs cited
Pattern membership
Where this document fits across the library's 12 rhetorical / structural patterns.
Notable slides (3)
Notes
Plain-prose letter on Bluebell letterhead, signed by co-CIOs Giuseppe Bivona and Marco Taricco, copied to BP's Board and 26 sell-side analysts by name — the wide CC list is itself a pressure tactic. Tactical follow-up in Bluebell's ongoing BP campaign rather than a fresh thesis: structured as ten enumerated questions for the 29 Oct 2024 Q3 call. CEO contradiction comes via a footnoted verbatim quote from BP's Q2 2024 results where Auchincloss said the $4bn price-impact 'rule of thumb' is a call 'we don't know at this stage'. No charts, no SOTP, no target price.